St. Paul Saints beat Amarillo Sox in 10 innings, 4-3

The Amarillo Sox survived a precarious situation Saturday night to force extra innings against the St. Paul Saints.

But they couldn’t survive a second one.

After getting out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Sox got new life going into the 10th. But they couldn’t retire another batter after that, as the Saints loaded the bases with no outs and scored the winning run on a single by Jose Hernandez to beat Amarillo, 4-3in St. Paul, Minn.

The game was tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the ninth when Sox reliever Chad Povich gave up a double and two walks with one out, and Amarillo brought in reliever Jack Spradlin. Spradlin did his part, retiring Jim Rapoport and Joe Spiers on fly balls to force a 10th inning.

In the top of the 10th, the Sox (37-43) got two runners on base with two outs but failed to score.

Willie Cabrera and Ole Sheldon singled off Spradlin to start the 10th, then Spradlin walked Ronnie Bourquin to load the bases and was pulled from the game. Wes Littleton relieved and got up 0-2 in the count on Hernandez, but Hernandez came through with the game-winning hit.

Garrett Rau, Adam Buschini and Patrick Arlis drove in runs for the Sox.